Archive for December, 2010
Lyric Spotlight Q&A: January/February 2011
Rodney Fitzhugh Ridgway, Colorado “Café Los Reyes” What is Café Los Reyes about? I do a lot of bicycle racing which gives you these great endorphin rushes. I was thinking of a particular bike ride I did, and for some reason I just thought about Los Reyes, where I had eaten hot pork chili many [...]
3rd Place | “Smokestack People”
3rd Place “Smokestack People” Rick Hales London, Ontario Another empty morning, in a string of wasted days. You’ve given up on hope, and lost the urge to pray. The world you knew has vanished, and now you’ve lost your way. You’re pulling back inside, there’s nothing left to say. Times have changed You’re on your [...]
2nd Place | “One Kentucky Moon”
2nd Place “One Kentucky Moon” David Swint Dallas, Texas We won’t grow old together We knew it from the start Our separate lives outside the lines That’s shared by kindred hearts Sometimes goodbye’s the answer No reason to be sad The memory’s sweet and all complete With everything we’ve had ‘Cause nothing lasts forever We’ll [...]
1st Place | “Cafe Los Reyes”
1st Place “Café Los Reyes” Rodney Fitzhugh Ridgway, Colorado www.sonicbids.com/rodneyfitzhugh At a greasy cafe in Downtown Grand Junction, Where the Gunnison River Connects to the Grand; On the south side of town There ain’t many gringos, The owners and the waiters Have permanent tans. You can get enchiladas And homemade tamales, With ice-cold cerveza It [...]
Lyric Contest Winners for Jan/Feb 2011 Announced
We’re proud to announce the winners of our January/February 2011 Lyric contest, with “Café Los Reyes” written by Rodney Fitzhugh taking 1st place. We recently talked with Fitzhugh on his inspiration for “Café Los Reyes” and his influences. Read the interview in its entirety here. Check out all of the current winners from the January/February [...]
The Girl In The Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics
The Girl In The Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics By Michael Heatley & Frank Hopkinson (CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS) Rating: Sharona. Maggie May. Peggy Sue. Carrie Ann. Inhabitants of pop music’s most enduring songs, these real-life ladies all have stories of their own, revealed in this addictive little book by Michael Heatley and [...]
Neil Young And Daniel Lanois: Love And War
Photos by Alissa Anderson Buy the current issue. Subscribe to American Songwriter. A condensed version of this interview appears in the January/February issue. Serious, intense, with hooded blue-gray eyes that always seem capable of pinning you to the wall, Neil Young looks like a man who has forged an uneasy peace with himself and the [...]
How To Make The Whole World Sing: “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to write a song about friendship. Friendship, like romantic love or third-world poverty, is a topic so immeasurably layered and complicated that it does not lend itself to the sort of easy explanation normally found in garden variety pop ditties. Many songwriters have attempted to encapsulate the [...]
Sean Wilentz On Bob Dylan In America
With Bob Dylan In America, historian Sean Wilentz has written one of the best books on his subject to date. We talked to the Princeton professor about the master songwriter’s accessability and influence, and which Dylan movie he’d willingly sit through again. There are so many Dylan books out there. Why write a new one? [...]
Chrissie Hynde: The Great Pretender
Buy current issue. Subscribe to American Songwriter. “You have to keep digging deeper over the years,” says Chrissie Hynde, discussing time’s tendency to soften the edges of a rocker. Nearing 60, she’s still one of rock’s most fiercely gifted songwriters, and, as evidenced by the songs on The Pretenders’ 2008 album Break Up The Concrete, [...]
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